VILLA CORSINI 



At no great distance from the Villa Reale di Castello lies the delightful 

 Villa Corsini. At one time it belonged to the Rinieri family who 

 bought it from the Strozzi about the year 1460, when it was known as 

 " La Lepre dei Rinieri." Later it became the property of Cosimo de' 

 Medici, who had a fancy to unite it with the adjoining villas of Castello 

 and Petraja. After many vicissitudes it was purchased, towards the 

 close of the seventeenth century, by the Corsini family, and considerable 

 changes were made both in palace and garden ; probably by the same 

 Antonio Ferri who built the fa9ade of the Corsini Palace in Florence. 



The house is of the old Tuscan type, built round an arcaded court, 

 and entered direct from the road as is the case in so many of these 

 Florentine villas. With the exception of the more modern fa9ade, the 

 palace is a plain substantial building, depending for its effect on its 

 good proportions, well-spaced windows, and deep, overhanging roof. 



In tracing the history and development of the Roman villa, it is 

 impossible to overrate the assistance given by the prints of Falda and 

 others ; but with the Florentine villa the case is different, for we have 

 nothing to fall back on but the eighteenth-century prints of Giuseppe 

 Zocchi, and, though we may be grateful for even these, they are but a 

 poor substitute for the invaluable prints by Falda, Venturini and the rest. 



Zocchi devotes one of his engravings to the Villa Corsini, but 

 presents us, as he so often does, with its least interesting aspect. This is 

 the forecourt and the western fa9ade of the palazzo^ with its somewhat 

 wild baroque overlay of pilaster and window frame, finished above with 

 clock-turret and fringe of vases. In the distance are seen the Villa 



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